The Turkish lira weakened to a record low of 42.85 per US dollar in late December, maintaining the controlled depreciation trend by the Central Bank of Turkey as markets assessed the outlook of currency flows for the upcoming year. The central bank continued to manage their foreign exchange reserves and maintained measures to stimulate lira deposits by domestic investors to control the pace of the currency's depreciation, which is set to lose around 18% of its value against the dollar this year. The TCMB had reduced its key interest rate by 9.5 percentage points to 38% this year as inflation slowed to a four-year low of 31% in November, although price growth was likely to end the year above the target of 24%. The figures compare to a 27% increase in the national minimum wage for next year, in line with expectations, extending trend of undershooting official inflation figures to further squeeze household's purchasing power.